Equinor Cleared for Barents Well

Equinor has received approval to drill a well in Norway's frontier Barents Sea, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) said on October 23.

The well will be drilled at production licence 960 using the West Hercules rig, some 100 km southwest of Equinor's Snohvit gas field, which is used to produce LNG at Hammerfest. This is the first well to be sunk at the site.

Equinor operates the licence with a 40% stake, while Norway's Petoro, Sweden's Lundin Energy and Germany's Wintershall Dea each have 20% shares.